Inverters enable flow to be controlled efficiently and cost effectively. In the water industry, they are used in the following areas amongst others.
Water supply:
* Drinking water treatment.
* Water booster systems.
* Surface water (weirs, dams, irrigation).
* Seawater desalination systems.
* Swimming pools.
* Industrial water.
* Pumped storage power stations.
* Marine and offshore industry.
Wastewater treatment:
* Effluent treatment.
* Sludge treatment.
* Biogas recovery.
By way of example, the following applications can be realised in practice with the following measures.
Pumps in the water treatment industry
Every day, large quantities of rainwater and effluent flow from domestic properties to wastewater treatment systems. About 20 hours later, this water can be re-dispensed with excellent quality. Hundreds of drives are used in the process. In addition to the transportation of water and effluent sludge by means of pumps, oxygen must be introduced into the water in order to promote the cleaning process. Further drives set screens and scrapers in motion.
The use of inverters enables the deployment of optimally controlled variable speed drives which guarantee that the cleaned water is of consistently high quality. At the same time, energy costs can be significantly reduced.
Sluice gate control
Another challenge is the safe movement of heavy loads, such as those which occur with sluice gates. Here, inverters with a high overload capability which can respond to changing water levels and counteract high breakaway torques must be used.
Similar criteria also apply to the control of floodgates which are used to control the water flow by diverting it via dams or discharge channels.
Swimming pools
According to law, the water in a swimming pool must be continuously circulated and filtered. However, the volume flow can be reduced to half, outside of the opening hours. Here, a frequency converter can be used to control the pump. The fact that the pump only runs at a fraction of the maximum power during this time results in high energy savings.
Also, the pump does not have to be operated at maximum power during the opening times. Only the backwashing of the filter should be carried out at high speed.
In this case, the frequency converter can be automatically switched off using the ‘switch motor to mains operation’ function and the motor operated directly from the mains.
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